‘As
per a report by UNICEF about 9 million children under five years die every year
due to easily preventable and treatable diseases like Diarrhoea and Pneumonia.’

‘As
per another report by UNICEF, about 1.83 million children die annually in India
before even reaching their fifth birthdays.’

It’s clear isn’t it that we are
failing at the very rudimentary level? Preventable and easily treatable
diseases are actually hampering a good quality life in terms of health and that
too in children. If we want a stronger, healthier and more immune India we need
to ensure that these stats fall dramatically in the imminent future. A country
which cannot ensure a healthy life to its infant and child population is a far
cry from realizing the dream of ‘stronger, healthier and more immune India’!

We have of course grown from
strength to strength form the 1950s but still there is a lot of work to be
done. As they say we truly have miles to
go before we sleep, in this case we have
miles to go before we call ourselves a healthy nation!

Children being the future of this
nation, in fact of the world, it is imperative that we build their immunity to
give them a chance at life. But how do we do that?

The first thing that comes to my
mind is ensuring supply of pure drinking water. Did you know that every
20 seconds a child dies from a water-borne disease in the world, more so in
developing countries? I didn’t know either till I did some reading on this
topic. It’s scary to even imagine that this happens in our country as well.
With the curse of poverty and poor water supply spread across the nation, right
from north to south and east to west, this is one of the key problems to be
dealt with. It must be acknowledged
that something as elementary as safe drinking water can actually go a long way
in preventing water borne diseases. I have also read that about 3 million
people die every year due to water borne diseases which includes 1.2 million children.
Now that’s a staggering number, isn’t it? Diarrhoea,
which is one of the key causes of deaths in children under 5 years of age, is
also spread through contaminated drinking water. With water availability and
scarcity being a long standing problem in this country ensuring pure and safe
drinking water should definitely be taken on priority.

The next on the list should be proper
sanitation. It might not seem important but trust me it is. The lack of
proper sanitation facilities can lead to diseases. It is especially the
children who are vulnerable. Children growing up in informal settlements like
slums are especially at risk. And I don’t need to tell you how many informal
settlements India has. And not only that there are several villages which are
devoid of proper sanitation facilities, this I know from having watched a documentary
some time back. So if we want a healthy and strong nation, we need to provide
access to proper sanitation facilities because poor sanitation causes diseases.

Proper nutrition comes
next. Adequate nourishment is pivotal to development and growth of children. There
are still millions of people in the country who find it hard to even get their
hands on proper food. They eat for survival and most of the times what they eat
is hardly enough to build their immune system. It is especially true for
children keeping in mind their nutritional needs while growing.

Building the immune system makes Vaccinationthe next item in the ‘to-do’
list. Prevention of diseases as we know
is the key to health. We need to ensure that not a single child is devoid of
vaccination. Thus it becomes imperative that we immunize infants and children
so that they develop immunity without having to actually suffer from the
disease. Prevention before treatment should be our motto to build a stronger
population.

All the above that I have listed
can also be ensured only when the quality of life is improved. In our country
still a large section of the population find it hard to make their ends meet.
So unless the economic and social standard of living is improved, building a
healthier nation would remain an unrealistic goal which is virtuous to talk
about but hard to realize.

Also, schools and colleges should
ensure that health is give due importance. From a first aid facility, to a
doctor or nurse being always available on call in the campus to periodic health
checkups including eye and dental checkup camps being run; the school and
college authorities need to ensure them all. And ofcourse immunization drives
can also be taken up by schools. What better place to learn the importance of
health than where children spend most of their time in?

That Health is wealth is a known fact.
And I reiterate again that the children of today will grow up to be the
future of this country. Then what is it that we are waiting for? A clarion
call, well that’s never really going to be rung. So it's high time we take this seriously. I remember having read in
school that health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being. It is just
not the lack of diseases.So
if we are to build a nation on these principles there’s a lot of work to be
done!